Jonathan Sedman has just met his baby son, Kayden, for the first time.
“How does it feel, John?”
“It feels pretty good!” he says.
That exchange seemed almost impossible a few weeks ago.
Sedman, a 41-year-old Surrey fireworks technician, was setting up a pyrotechnics display at the Saratoga Speedway in Black Creek on Vancouver Island just over two weeks ago when he was crushed by a car in a freak accident.
He was in hospital, heavily sedated with critical injuries, when his wife Christa went into labour and delivered their infant son. His family worried he might have brain damage and awaken a different man.
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On Saturday, the two got to meet for the very first time.
“(Saturday), the baby was allowed out of the hospital, all good to go, so basically they got the baby packed up, and Christa came to the hospital to the high acuity ward, and my brother got to meet his baby boy for the first time,” said Sedman’s sister, Jennifer.
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“He was just so amazed and in wonder, like, ‘Wow!’ It was such a joyous, happy moment for sure.
“It was something that we were waiting for. I wanted so badly for him to meet his son, and when the birth happened, it was joyous but so devastating.”
Sedman is lucid and conscious now, but his sister says he has a long road to recovery ahead of him.
After the crash, he was left with a brain bleed, five broken ribs and a shattered pelvis and left hip. The ventilator and IV are now gone, but after a pair of surgeries, Sedman has limited mobility and no reflexes in his left leg, along with a bad infection and muscle damage.
His hip will need time to heal, and he has months of physiotherapy ahead of him, Jennifer added.
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But she said the family is staying positive.
“His condition has improved greatly. It’s so crazy how fast it happened. He is now awake; it is definitely him, it’s his personality. He’s off the ventilator so he can talk now. His voice is still a little hoarse, but he can talk, that’s for sure,” she said.
“My brother is a super active, stubborn, determined guy, and I know that he will get to it. It will take him some time. I’ve challenged him to try and start walking before the baby crawls.”
In the meantime, she said her brother and his wife are focusing on the good things — a healthy son and the chance to spend as much time together as possible.
“At least babies are small and cuddle, a lot of cuddle time he’s going to get,” she said.
A GoFundMe campaign for the family’s expenses has raised more than $26,000.
—With files from Neetu Garcha and Kylie Stanton
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